Posted on 09/15/2024 3:17:19 PM PDT by Salman
When thousands of Boeing employees rejected a new labor contract, precipitating a strike that began Friday, they were at odds not just with management but also with the leaders of their union, who backed the proposed deal.
Now, any attempt to reach an agreement must take account of the demands of the rank and file of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. What they want — significantly larger pay raises and far more lucrative retirement benefits than their leaders and Boeing agreed to — may be too much for management. But labor experts said the strength of the strike vote — 96% in favor — should help the union get a better deal.
“Those overwhelming numbers are kind of embarrassing, certainly from a public relations standpoint for the union,” said Jake Rosenfeld, a sociologist who studies labor at Washington University in St. Louis. “But they also simultaneously present the union with leverage when it does resume negotiations.”
And Boeing is in a difficult spot after a slowdown in commercial jet production — required by regulators after a panel blew out of a passenger jet fuselage in January — led to big financial losses. A long strike at Boeing’s main production base in the Seattle area would add significantly to the losses and possibly tip its credit rating into junk territory, a chilling development for a company with nearly $60 billion in debt.
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West, the Boeing executive, said Friday that the company would be “laser-like-focused on actions to conserve cash.” Moody’s Investors Service said Friday that it was weighing whether to downgrade Boeing’s credit rating to noninvestment grade — “junk” territory.
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(Excerpt) Read more at heraldnet.com ...
Does the public want a bunch of unsatisified and pissed off employyes building commercial planes?
Boeing should shut down. I’m afraid to fly on any of their planes, so I drive when flying would be much easier.
Their space program is a joke. Spacecraft had multiple leaks when returning to earth. I’ll bet the problems come down to unqualified workers performing the work.
I can weld. But I can’t weld well enough to weld chemical pipes and I wouldn’t try. When their space place was coming back to earth, the thrusters were failing. It barely made it back.
And the gubmint is funding the program. Elon is doing it with him own money.
DEI. Didn’t Earn It
If it’s Boeing 737 MAX
I’m not going
A successful company must have quality management AND a reasonable union. If either is missing, the company cannot succeed.
Boeing cannot succeed.
The last union on earth that should be striking
Fire every last one of them.
I want something in the agreement saying the people that build those planes have to take all the test flights along with the pilots.
Then what happens to the rest of the US aviation industry? You would turn over the commercial aircraft industry to a government subsidized European consortium. We only have one American company that makes commercial jets.
Or maybe Boeing should move its facilities to somewhere less expensive and subject to less regulation, like California.
“ I’m afraid to fly on any of their planes,”
Huge over reaction to the media. I’d like to think people on this site would know better.
Not only NO-—BUT HELL NO
never piss off the people that are making your sandwich...
They have taken a page from Hollywood, go on strike against an industry that is struggling. Boeing is in debt and their reputation is all but gone A long strike could very well kill them.
Then where will all those workers go for jobs?
According to friends and family who are long time employees and/or retired from Boeing, the company culture changed from engineering advances and safety when McDonnell-Douglas took over to minimizing costs and the bottom line there when the bean counters and institutional investors took ownership.
The result is what we’re witnessing today.
“ If the workers contributed to a good product things would be different. But Boeing has become the Yugo of the aerospace industry. Failure to follow procedures, failure to have assemblies inspected, counterfeit parts, out sourcing to bottom feeders—Boeing is a disgrace.”
It’s not The Boeing Company that I worked with in my 35+ years in the industry. I believe that their downfall started when they merged with McDonnell Douglas.
Trusted companies in my day:
Boeing
Hughes
Martin-Marietta
Ford aerospace
General Dynamics
Not trusted:
Raytheon
United Technologies
McDonnell Douglas
Lockheed
They have a big plant in So Car
Only 130k year! A mere pittance, you union wankers. Demand a quarter of a million, it’s only fair.
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